Ananda Sambada

Once, on the day celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s sacred disappearance in this world, Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja was feeling unhappy about not having any money with which to hold a festival in honour of his beloved Gurudeva. At this time he was living pretty much alone in a brick hut on the site that would in the future become the beautiful Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Temple in Bhubaneswar. As he was lamenting, at that moment an auto rikshaw stopped on the road outside the Iskcon property and out stepped one elderly Vaisnava. He introduced himself as Bhakti Carana das Baba, a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Swami Prabhupadaji Maharaja. When Srila Gour Govinda Swami mentioned that the day was the day of Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, Babaji Maharaja instantly offered to pay for the feast and festivities. So the festival was held, well attended by the local villagers and devotees.

Srila Gour Govinda Swami explained that at that point he realized that Srila Prabhupada had sent Babaji Maharaja to him.

Over the coming years, Srila Babaji Maharaja would sometimes visit Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja, coming again to the Iskcon Bhubaneswar Temple property.

Then, just a matter of days before Babaji Maharaja left this world at the end of 1993, hearing that his friend was quite ill, on this occasion, Srila Gour Govinda Swami privately visited him at his Nikunja bihari Ashram in Kendarapara. He was travelling with only his servant, cook and secretary, and was on his way back to the Bhubaneswar Temple from a month of preaching on the Padayatra. During their final meeting Babaji Mahasaya was tearfully calling out “Gour! Gour!” and “Radhe! Radhe!” with great spiritual emotion. He was chanting various verses from our sacred scriptures, including a verse which describes how on the peacock feather adorning Krsna’s hair are the syllables ‘Ra’ and ‘Dha’. He was quite obviously on the spiritual platform, absorbed in thought of his Lord. 

Another Vaisnava that Srila Gour Govinda Swami had a relationship with was Professor Sripad Dr Fakir Mohan Das Prabhuji. Both were born in Vaisnava families at around the same time, and in the same area of Orissa. As children they had known each other, and in later years they also spent some time in each others’ company. 

The Professor was present during part of the final meeting between Srila Gour Govinda Swami and Sripad Bhakti carana das Baba in Kendarapara one day in 1993. After their meeting Maharaja accompanied the Professor to his library of ancient manuscripts – which was just down the lane from Babaji Maharaja’s Nikunja bihari Ashram. At that time, our Gurudeva discussed with the devoted and learned Professor about establishing a Vaisnava University based in Bhubaneswar, and he requested that Fakir Mohan prabhu head up the project. Our Gurudeva was also very interested to help the Professor develop the new temple for Thakur Bhaktivinode's Sri Sri Radha-Madhava deities in the village of Chhoti, the Thakur's ancestral home.

Srila Gour Govinda Swami very much appreciated the Professor’s scholarly research into Vaisnava topics, and once stated that ‘no-one knows as much about Mahaprabhu’ as the respected Professor. 

The Professor was born to a devotional Gaudiya Vaisnava couple in the rural village of Panchupalli, in the district of Jagatsinghpur, at mid night on Janmastami 1932 (24th of August). From his earliest years he was seen to be attached to the Lord, and as a small child used to accompany his father, Dambharudara, a famous kirtan singer, to various temples, singing the songs of Narottama das Thakur and other Vaisnava Acaryas. The young Fakir Mohan hung a small Jagannath deity over his bed so that even there he could have darshan of the Lord. At age nine he ran away from home to join the Purusottama Gaudiya Math in Puri dhama. When his father found him, he agreed to donate him to the Matha. Noting his scholarly nature, Bhakti Prasad Puri Goswami instructed the young Prabhu to enter acedemia and preach to the intelligensia. In his time, through his research and in publishing rare books, Prabhu added much to our knowledge of the life and times of Sriman Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

Over the years, Prabhu had close association with many famous Gaudiya sadhus such as B. P. Tirtha Swami, B. K. Audulomi Maharaja, B.P. Puri Goswami, Sri Kanupriya Goswami, Sri Haridas das Baba, Sri Tinkori Goswami and Sri Sundarananda Vidyavinode amongst many others, was a close associate of Srila Gour Govinda Swami, and spent many years travelling and preaching within our Iskcon society.

The Professor was well known and highly respected throughout the Vaisnava world (as well as in scholarly circles) crossing all sectarian boundaries, and travelled widely visiting devotees around the world nearly 20 years. He was well known for his scriptural expertise, for his jolly sense of humour, for his pure-hearted simplicity and for his genuine humility. He left this world on the 18th November, 2018.

Brief biographical detail from Asia/Pacific Who’s Who – 

Das, Fakir Mohan M.A. PhD (Oriya) Sahityacharya writer and research scholar born 24th August 1932 Panchapalli, Orissa. President of Sri Bhaktivinode Library; vice-chairman of International Thakur Bhaktivinode and Thakur Bhaktisiddhanta Memorial Trust, Kendrapara; Chairman Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana Research Inst, Bhubaneswar… he has published more than 35 books, mostly in Oriya but ‘Choti, the Native Place of Thakur Bhaktivinode’ and ‘Bhakta Kavi Gopalkrishna’ are in English.